Turk­ish clubs off to win­less starts in Europa League

MEDIPOL Başakşe­hir and Konyas­por, the two Turk­ish clubs play­ing this year’s UEFA Europa League, were both win­less in their first group stage matches Thurs­day.

In Is­tan­bul, Medipol Başakşe­hir were held to a 0-0 stale­mate by their Group C op­po­nents Lu­do­gorets.

De­spite dom­i­nat­ing pos­ses­sion, Başakşe­hir failed to cap­i­tal­ize on the home ad­van­tage and breach the Bul­gar­ian side’s de­fense.

In the other match of the group, Por­tu­gal’s Braga man­aged to beat Ger­many’s Hof­fen­heim 2-1, tak­ing the lead in Group C.

In Group I, Atiker Konyas­por were handed a 1-0 de­feat by Olympique Mar­seille. The French side picked up three valu­able points thanks to a headed ef­fort by their de­fender Adil Rami.

With the re­sult, Konyas­por’s win­less streak in Europe was ex­tended to seven matches. Konya have now suf­fered six de­feats and picked up just one draw in their last seven en­coun­ters in the Europa League.

In the other Group I match, Por­tu­gal’s Vi­to­ria Se­tubal and Ger­many’s Salzburg shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw.